We are aware of the ongoing situation concerning the spread of the covid-19 virus and its potential implications for public events.

In line with current government and NHS recommendations, any public events we are involved in organising will continue as planned and we will be taking reasonable precautions to ensure good levels of hygiene and minimise any risk. We encourage attendees of any events to also take reasonable precautions as suggested by the NHS.We continue our standard practice of improving the accessibility and minimising the carbon emissions of our events by filming or recording at many of them, and recommend taking advantage of these resources going forward should anyone require an alternative to attending in person. We are monitoring the national situation and will make those of you who have signed up to one of our events aware of any changes or updates.

The post Coronavirus Update appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

This event brought together musicians, geographers and campaigners to discuss the concept of the Anthropocene, the proposed new geological epoch marked by human activity, and the role that music and listening could play as a means of illuminating our understanding of this particular issue and how we as humans interact with the rest of our world.  

Listening Exercise

Emily Doolittle kicked off the event by leading everyone in a listening exercise. We first listened to what we could hear now in our location at Civic House, which sits nearby to both green space and a major road. We then tried to remember a soundscape of the past and noted the things that perhaps we don’t hear now. Suggestions included children playing in the street, the sound of a horse and cart rag and bone man, typewriters, and electric milk floats. Then we were asked to imagine what a future soundscape might be and whether our impulse was to imagine this positively or negatively. Suggestions here included thoughts about no internal combustion engine cars, lots of drones, fewer planes, and maybe more kids playing in safer streets. 

The aim of the exercise was to open up attendees to considering how our sense of place is strongly (albeit usually unconsciously) influenced by how we hear it, as well as how listening can be a way of understanding our world, an alternative to our normal emphasis on the visual. Is the non-directional, diffuse experience of listening a more appropriate way of understanding how our world is shifting than the focused, specific experience of looking? The rest of the event sought to interrogate this issue. 

Presentations from Panellists

Deborah Dixon spoke about how early geologists used poetry, music, visuals, intersecting with the arts in a very different way to how we think of geology now. She further suggested that geology is a ‘field-oriented discipline’ in that tactile and sensory information derived from feeling, hearing and tasting is of vital importance.  

Deborah discussed how, from an earth sciences point of view, there exists a kind of â€˜geosemiosis’. History is the signs which are written in the rock strata and can be interpreted. She also argued that we should use the term ‘an Anthropocene’ rather than ‘the Anthropocene’ and noted that there were many different definitions and names for it, depending on people’s point of view, but that all of them tend to miss emphasising the complex human processes that together have force enough to shape the entire Earth system.

How do we look for the sounds of human forcing of the climate? Bioacoustics! Sound and recording can capture biodiversity loss and change as well as variations in the environment in alternative ways. These sounds can intimate an exchange or a loss in the makeup of our world, as well as an indifference, or an obligation. She quoted some examples of discussions of the importance of sound by geologists, such as: 

‘Listen to your footsteps over dry and wet sand beaches. How different those sounds are from the coarse crunch produced while walking on a gravel beach or from the fine crunch of ash while walking up a cinder cone. And both are distinctively different from the clinking sound made while walking on the crushed glass and pumice of an obsidian dome’, Ray Pestrong 2000 

Emily Doolittle then spoke about how she had been interested in birdsong for some years now, and the difference between how humans and animals use and consider and organise sound. 

She noted that birds, in her example the Hermit Thrush, process sound much more quickly than we do, so what sounds like a babble to us has more structure to them – when you slow it down you hear much more detail. But nobody had written about this before as ornithologists and musicians don’t communicate with each other well. 

She noted that some mammals are considered to have ‘song’ as birds do â€“ whales, seals, bats â€“ and that the importance of communication through sound is prevalent throughout the natural world. 

She played some recordings of bird song and then the same slowed down, so that we could hear the detail and then she played an extract of her own composition, which responded to the birdsong. 

Tamara van Strijthem then spoke about Take One Action, a film festival that uses film screenings and discussions as a means of provoking positive social change. The 2019 festival hosted a number of screenings of the documentary film ‘Anthropocene: the human epoch’ alongside talks and discussions.  

She threw out a number of provocations, including â€˜How do we communicate about a crisis as fundamental as the one we face?’ and how do we enable people to understand and accept the level of crisis and then seek to change?’, â€˜What do we seek, as participants in an arts event that addresses climate change, that other forms don’t offer?’.  

Stuart Macrae spoke about his opera Anthropocene, with the libretto by Louise Welsh. It is set in the Antarctic, where a ship of scientists and researchers becomes stuck in the ice. 

The title was a bit playful. They initially called the ship on which the passengers are stuck ‘The Anthropocene’, seeking to indicate a sense of hubris, but also the sense that it is the humans who have caused the problem of climate breakdown and now they have to deal with it. Gradually the whole opera took on the same title. 

During the process of composition, many people asked him would he use recorded sounds from the Antarctic but he decided no: like the marooned people on board, he’d have to rely on the resources available to him â€“ in his case in the orchestra and the theatre. 

Discussion

This was followed by a question and answer session. There was talk about the need to avoid trying to ‘bridge’ the gap between art and science in collaborations but to rather acknowledge the differences and seek the shared aesthetics. Scientists and artists share more than we think in terms of understandings and curiosity. 

After a break we then broke into four groups, each led by one of the panel members, as follows: 

Stuart focused on the question â€˜What role can musicians have in aiding conceptualisation of environmental issues?’. The discussion centred around what skills musicians have to offer that are not found elsewhere in the environmental movement, whether musicians need to have a ‘unique’ role to be useful, and the difficulties in knowing which methods are effective. 

Tamara looked at â€˜How can we make sure that artistic work produces real action?’. Responses included: 

• Shared experience can be used as a means of precipitating a collective response, breaking through the tendency to emphasise individual responsibility. 
• Artistic work can enable a radical re-imagining, creating new narratives that can contribute to future change.
• It can enable emotional connection and solidarity.
• It provides opportunities to acknowledge, process, and explore complex realities and emotions. 

Emily asked ‘How can artists and environmental practitioners forge useful relationships?’. Responses included: 

• Arts and sciences are equally rigorous, but in different ways. 
• We need to take the time to develop a shared understanding of the language we use. 
• In an academic context, needing to frame artistic work as research can inhibitpossibilities. 

And Deborah asked â€˜How can music/art go beyond â€˜communicating’ about climate change?’. Responses included: 

• Communication can take different forms through art. It can be embodied or affective.
• Art can allow interpretation of data as experienced or felt.
• It can provide a context for ‘slow thought’ on complex subjects.
• Artistic  approaches can go beyond traditional reality or be speculative.
• Art can enable ‘aesthetic transduction’, provoking new ways of thinking softly or unobtrusively, getting past defences.

The post Green Tease Reflections: Listening to the Anthropocene appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Zero Waste Scotland and Creative Carbon Scotland are seeking a filmmaker to be embedded within an exciting new initiative addressing how to move towards a lower consumption, circular economy in the context of the climate emergency. 

Zero Waste Scotland has recently formed an independent advisory group whose purpose is to analyse the challenges associated with decoupling our economic and social prosperity from the environmental impacts of resource production, consumption and waste in context of the climate emergency. As part of this Creative Carbon Scotland is seeking a filmmaker to be embedded within the group, following its journey, exploring the complex issues which decoupling raises, and making them visible and engaging to a wider audience.

Deadline for applications: 6pm, Saturday 14^th March

This is an exciting, paid opportunity for a filmmaker interested in exploring the complex issues concerning Scotland’s transition away from a high consumption society driven by GDP, to a lower consumption, circular economy. It offers the chance to participate in and contribute to a group comprised of experts from a wide range of fields including environmental economics, social justice, and circular economy, and to support wider engagement with an area of growing importance in global efforts to tackle the climate emergency.

Demystifying Decoupling Advisory Group

Decoupling refers to the ability of an economy to grow or prosper without corresponding increases in energy and resource use and environmental pressures. Decoupling is seen as a central part of the transition to a circular economy. Despite this there is no evidence to show it has been achieved anywhere near the scale needed to deal with environmental breakdown or that it is likely to happen in the future (Decoupling Debunked, The European Environmental Bureau).

An advisory group has therefore been formed to undertake a critical assessment of the viability of decoupling at the rate necessary to address the climate emergency and biodiversity loss crisis. Key challenges which the group will address include:

• The lack of clarity on what decoupling means for Scotland: what indicators are used, at what scale and over what time period, as well as how it fits into relevant environmental thresholds such as the nine planetary boundaries and policy targets
• How to overcome the challenges associated with decoupling such as rebound effects and problem shifting (Decoupling Debunked, p.40 – 42)
• What role decoupling can play in wider societal transition. It is necessary to consider how decoupling is linked to other topics such as the wellbeing economy,the Green New Deal and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and whether it can be pursued to build a fairer and more prosperous society now and for future generations.
• Key actions or next steps required in order to achieve decoupling

The members of the advisory group will be asked to provide expert advice and input through various formats and their responses will help inform Zero Waste Scotland and the public on how best to tackle the challenges associated with achieving decoupling.

The whole project will run from April 2020 to January 2021.

Filmmaker brief

We are looking for a filmmaker to apply their skills in conceptual thinking and storytelling to document and explore the journey of the group over the course of the project, connecting individuals with their motivations for joining and drawing links to wider societal themes. These could include carbon footprinting and resource consumption, wellbeing and just transition.

As well being an active participant and contributing a different, cultural perspective to the group, a key outcome of the filmmaker’s role will be the production of a short film (approximately 10 minutes in length).

The purpose of the film will be to help make visible the complex issues surrounding decoupling and Scotland’s transition to a lower-consumption society. The target audience will be a wider network of stakeholders engaged in fields including academia, NGOs, industry, public sector, youth and equity, with the aim of building momentum behind the discussion and recommendations made by the advisory group. Social media will be the primary platform for distributing and sharing of the film.

The anticipated time commitment is 14 days over the whole project. This will include:

• Attending an introductory meeting with Creative Carbon Scotland and project partners
• Preparing for and participating in four half day advisory group meetings in the central belt:
  • Meeting 1: Friday 24^th April
  • Meetings 2, 3 & 4 – Between April and December 2020. Exact dates to be agreed by group at first meeting
• Participating in regular catch up meetings with Creative Carbon Scotland and partners
• Leading on the production of the short film with input from key project members
• Working with the Zero Waste Scotland communications team to produce shareable edits for social media

Filmmaker fee

• The filmmaker will be paid a total of £4200 for the 14 days’ work. This fee is based on an artist with 5+ years experience in line with the Scottish Artist Union recommended rates of pay.
• A small materials budget of £250 will also be available.
• Travel expenses to and from project meetings within the central belt will be covered with a rough travel budget of up to £25 per meeting.
• The filmmaker will be expected to provide their own film and sound recording and editing equipment and software, and insurance.

Filmmaker specification

The role is envisaged for an experienced filmmaker based in Scotland, looking to use their creative skills and experience to contribute to wider society. We anticipate an individual with 5+ years film-making experience will be most appropriate for the role.

The skills and experience that will be beneficial for this project include:

• Experience in planning, shooting and editing high quality film content: ability to plan and manage own time and deliver key tasks within budget;
• Skills in analytical thinking: an interest in and ability to research new topics, work with complex information, and identify underlying questions and issues;
• Experience in storytelling and narratives: an interest in and ability to bring together diverse forms of knowledge and understanding, and to develop narratives which help make the issues accessible and engaging to wider audiences;
• Interest in and experience of working collaboratively with diverse groups and in non-arts contexts. For example, regeneration, environmental, educational, social, healthcare contexts;
• Knowledge of sustainability-related issues, including climate change. 

The filmmaker must be available for the full duration of the project and key event dates as agreed with the project team.

Key dates

• 6pm, Saturday 14th March – Applications close
• Thursday 19th March – Interviews held in central Edinburgh
• Friday 24th April – First advisory group meeting
• April – December 2020 – Group meetings 2, 3 & 4 held. Exact dates to be agreed by group at first meeting
• December 2020 – Delivery of short film

How to apply

Please read carefully through the required skills and experience as outlined in the brief to ensure you meet the required experience and abilities.

To apply: complete the online application form

The form will ask you to include:

• An anonymised CV demonstrating appropriate skills and experience (max 2 pages)
• An anonymised covering letter (max 2 pages) which makes clear:
  • What it is about the post that caught your interest
  • How your experience and skills match those outlined above
  • How you will contribute to the project aims and tasks
  • Provides details of projects where you have contributed to an interdisciplinary project team including working with non-arts partners to help achieve its aims
• 2 examples of relevant previous work
• You will also be asked to confirm completion of the Creative Carbon Scotland Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.

If you would like to discuss the role or if you have any questions please contact gemma.lawrence@creativecarbonscotland.com.

Deadline: Applicants should complete the online application form by 6pm on Saturday 14^th March

Interviews will take place on Thursday 19th March in central Edinburgh and with shortlisted applicants being notified at the beginning of the week commencing 16th March.

The post Opportunity: Zero Waste Scotland and Creative Carbon Scotland seek filmmaker appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Upland is seeking to appoint an artist-in-residence for the Artful Migration programme

This new residency is built on the successful pilot that took place at WWT Caerlaverock in 2017-18. This initial residency focused on the whooper swans and their family groups. It is our aim to explore a different migratory bird with each residency. For the 2020 residency, we are delighted to partner with NTS Threave Garden and Estate to enable an artist to research and create work based on the osprey. Read about the 2017/18 Artful Migration pilot project.

The artist-in-residence programme will be hosted at Kelton Mains, Threave Nature Reserve (which is part of Threave Garden & Estate) so that the artist can study and record the osprey’s behaviour. The artist will develop a new piece of work based on this research. The residency will be spread over spring and summer (late April to August 2020) to coincide with the female osprey laying her eggs (late April), observe the birds raising their young and then witness the birds leaving the site to return to their wintering grounds, most likely in West Africa.

Work created will be exhibited at Threave Garden visitor centre in August 2020.

Deadline: 5th March 2020 at 5pmFor more information and to apply, please view the PDF from Upland or visit their opportunities page.

(Image credit: Colin Tennant)

The post Opportunity: Artful Migration Artist-in-Residence appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

In the midst of winter, James Bonner recalls a summer cycle I took on 21 June 2019 to the source of the River Clyde.

For the past few years I’ve sought to cycle somewhere significant on the summer and winter solstices – dates around 21st June and 21st December. These cycles have become a bit of a ritual-like pilgrimage for me.

For summer solstice this year, in the middle of my doctorate in which I am thinking about water, I thought to pedal to the source of the River Clyde – that body of water I see every day in my home city of Glasgow. I took the train to the town of Lanark and started cycling. This is some writing I did a couple of days later and, in a period in which I was struggling to write for my doctorate, this flowed out like a torrent. It fundamentally shifted the way I was writing in my research – I started to use the first person more frequently, and included much more about how I felt. It was a bit of a watershed moment for me in many ways. Reflecting on it later I started to see how it was influenced by some of the literature and writing that had been inspiring me in my research – in its ideas and style. Specifically, and as is probably evident to anyone who has read his work, the beautifully poetic words of nature writer Robert Macfarlane. And one of his influences, Scottish poet and writer, Nan Shepherd.

In academia it seems we learn to explain our research in terms of what we ‘think’, but often forget to explore how it makes us ‘feel’.

On Friday 21st June 2019, for solstice, I cycled to water. This is a short account of that journey:

I left Lanark on my bike with a rough course in mind to follow the Clyde to its source. I stayed as close to the water as roads allowed me, criss-crossing the river several times. Leaving it, but then coming back. It would disappear, then reappear, as I moved. For a long stretch I followed it near the motorway. A stream of cars and people to one side. The river to the other. I felt more for, and of, the latter.

After about 40km I left the main road toward Daer Reservoir â€“ understood to be the ‘source’ of the Clyde. I talked to sheep to give them forewarning so they could clear from the road ahead. Some kites came down to look at me and swooped overhead. We moved together for some time.

Crossing the river more and more, it was increasingly moving in a lazy meander. Its path less constrained and ‘rational’. It is shaped by the landscape’s topography, but also forming the land as it went. A relationship of water and rock – creating and reshaping one another.

The road got rougher – moments to be apprehensive on a road bike. You worry about your tyres. But, at the same time you think this means I am further ‘away’, and that’s what I wanted. And that contradiction and unsureness is good.

I cycled on and eventually came to the reservoir. A gleaming body of water opened up – beautiful and peaceful. But there were warning signs. Danger, deep water, private. Water gives life, but it can take it. It doesn’t make sense. On along the waterside. I only planned to come this far and the road is narrowing. But I was flowing and I kept going.

I was intrigued. I was at the ‘source‘. The start. But at the ‘end’ of the reservoir I could see several smaller streams flowing into the water. And when I got there it was clear that this wasn’t the ‘source’. Feeding the reservoir are dozens of different sized streams and little watercourses. Coming down from the hills, the valley beyond, out of the landscape itself.

While my map indicated this is the ‘start’, being there it was clear that this is not the case. There is a water ‘behind’ or ‘beyond’ the water. A whole other layer. There is no ‘source’ or ‘start’. No linear narrative. The Clyde doesn’t ‘begin’- it’s a gathering process of its everyday, every-minute, every-second, emergent being. Where waters assemble and dissemble. Merge and separate. Shift and shape. And this NEVER stops. Any ‘map’, no matter its accuracy, paused this flow. It couldn’t ever represent the lived ‘reality’.

I was too far now and hungry. A gate, gladly, stopped me going further. I got off my bike at one of the many little streams that were not on my map. Hidden waters that don’t ‘count’. Water beyond the water – sources of the source. As ever, I TOUCHED the water’s surface. And when I did, I was sensing a few droplets of water molecules – the ones surrounding the surface of my hand. I ‘know’ this, as science tells me so.

But I have come to ‘know’ for something else about water. That when my skin touches the skin of the water, I am touching the whole stream. And the stream joins the reservoir. And that makes the Clyde. And that travels all the way back to Glasgow, and eventually to the sea. And that sea is part of the ocean. And all oceans.

That’s hard to comprehend. How to make sense of that? It’s ‘non-sense’, surely! But, at that moment of touch, it makes complete sense. A common sense.

The water and I have some ‘thing’ in common. We are the same. I am touching it. It is touching
me.

I am the water, and it me.

James Bonner is doctoral researcher and research assistant at the University of Strathclyde

The post Guest blog: Solstice cycle reflections – seeking the source of the Clyde appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

In November, five colleagues from Scotland, two from Dublin and three from Ghent in Belgium travelled by train to Gothenburg in Sweden for the second of four ’transnational meetings’ as part of the Creative Europe project Cultural Adaptations, of which Creative Carbon Scotland is the leader.

It was a long journey (two days +) from Scotland and Ireland, but provided an ideal opportunity to put Creative Carbon Scotland’s money where my mouth has been for some time now, as I have argued that the cultural sector, and everyone else, needs to cut back on air travel in response to the climate emergency. In a previous blog I provided some tips about how to plan and book a long distance train journey, so in this one I’ll write about the experience, challenges and pleasures of the trip. 

As I’ll explain below it wasn’t totally smooth and I recognise that train travel for work reasons is not feasible for everyone; some of our team did fly because they had work and family commitments. The trip from Scotland or Ireland to Gothenburg goes via London, Brussels (overnight), Hamburg and Copenhagen (overnight). On the way, because of time zones and schedules, it is two and a half days; on the way back, you can do it in two days, overnighting at Hamburg. See Seat61.com here for advice. 

Costs 

I have to admit it was costly, compared to flying – though the comparison is probably not quite as bad as you’d think. For the five from Creative Carbon Scotland to get from Edinburgh city centre to Gothenburg city centre it cost just over £350 each, including overnights (although not food). The cost of a return flight with baggage for one of our colleagues who flew was £366, but you need to add to that the cost of getting to and from the airports at each end, and the fact that his flights meant that he couldn’t attend the first (admittedly optional) event of the meeting. To do so he’d have had to leave at an unearthly hour to catch a more expensive flight, which would probably have meant a night in a hotel, or to have travelled the day before and overnight in Gothenburg, adding to the costs. There are very cheap flights from Edinburgh to Gothenburg, but only on certain days, so he had to go via Frankfurt, probably doubling his carbon emissions.  

Time 

Again, I have to admit it was a long trip, which not everyone could take the time to do (freelancers for whom every lost day of work costs them even more; people with small children, people whose quite unreasonable employers won’t let them have that sort of time etc.). Taking the flight via Frankfurt, it meant leaving central Edinburgh by about 11am and our colleague arrived at about 10pm local time, so ten hours in total. 

Equalities 

If you use a wheelchair or have other mobility impairments, if you’re blind or have other disabilities, such a long journey would be very difficult, if not impossible: the sheer number of changes, some quite tight, the getting to and from hotels etc and the working out of what to do if a cancellation or delay occurs would make it very tricky. 

Use of time 

This was interesting. I’m a good worker on trains – I set writing and reading work aside that I know I can do without perfect wi-fi and that needs a period of undisturbed concentration. I sit myself down in a window seat with a table and just get to it. I did some useful work of that sort on this trip, but less than I had planned, largely I think because I was travelling with more people and we kept having good conversations! It was also at the weekend, which probably meant I felt less required to work.  

There were some disruptions to our travel, which meant I had fewer tables to work at and busier trains. But this turned out to be great bonding time: arriving at Flensburg (in Schleswig-Holstein, near the German/Danish border, since you ask) just as the café was closing, we had to transfer to a dreaded Bus Replacement Service (I thought these were characteristic of the UK, but apparently not) because our train from Hamburg had broken down. We all bought wine and snacks and had a great time, devising quizzes, playing games and generally getting to know each other, finally arriving in Copenhagen very late at 1.30am. I genuinely think this had a positive impact on the transnational meeting, as we had done quite a lot of the initial getting to know each other and had had some very useful discussions on the way. 

Deutsche Bahn (the German railway company) 

When it comes to disruptions, one of the big surprises for me was that just about every Deutsche Bahn train that we got was either cancelled, delayed so that we missed a connection or broke down! So much for Vorsprung durch Technik. There’s an important economic point here, backed up by a German friend I spoke to over Christmas. The current German government has a strict ‘no budget deficit’ policy, the Black Zero, which means they haven’t been investing in infrastructure. My friend and I discussed my problems with the trains, which he says are typical. The German Green Party, which has long moved on from being the single-issue pressure group that many Green parties are seen as around the world, is arguing for greater investment in infrastructure, green energy and transport. 

The tips and lessons

This was a useful experiment. We learned a great deal about what it means to undertake this sort of trip by train and gained some useful tips i.e. stay in hotels close to the station! avoid Deutsche Bahn!). Generally, I had a good time and I think my fellow travellers did too. We certainly got to know each other better, in a way which I think would be unusual in the rest of our work lives. 

On the other hand, unlike getting to Belgium, the Netherlands, western Germany and most of France, which you can easily reach in a day, it’s difficult to recommend travelling to Sweden from Scotland by train rather than air because of the financial and the time issues. But I’d argue that this should make us ask whether trips are necessary and appropriate, rather than that we should just board planes willy-nilly. I’m not the only one to make this claim: we all know about Coldplay deciding not to tour until they can sort out the carbon emissions; and Massive Attack are mapping the impacts of their touring. Less publicised is change in the fairly conservative world of classical music: as the agent Jasper Parrott wrote in the Guardian in December: â€˜Musicians and artists need to be disruptive in challenging assumptions about how our industry operates – and we all need to make real changes.’ When classical music agents, who make their money out of sending large numbers of players abroad, are getting with the project, something at last is happening.  

Closer to home, Amateo, the European Network for Active Participation in Cultural Activities, managed by our own Jim Tough, recently encouraged members to travel to (possibly easier to reach than Sweden) Utrecht in the Netherlands by sustainable means, and the Informal European Theatre Meeting has been talking to Creative Carbon Scotland about how it reconciles the challenge of global heating with its structure of members from over 50 countries meeting regularly in different parts of Europe. Meanwhile, academics, another band of heavy travellers, are also beginning to face the facts. However, COP26 in Glasgow in November will cause a vast amount of air travel – and I see no change taking place there. 

‘Credibility-enhancing displays promote the provision of non-normative public goods’ 

I recognise this is a challenging issue for most people working in the arts and probably quite a lot in climate change: travel is a part of work and domestic life, and convenient air travel particularly is a difficult one to give up both practically and emotionally. I’ve been banging on about it for ages, and I have worried that I’m just ‘virtue signalling’ to make myself feel better. So I was pleased to see an article in Nature (you may only be able to access the abstract), which confirms that ‘people who themselves engage in a given behaviour will be more effective advocates for that behaviour than people who merely extol its virtues—specifically because engaging in a behaviour credibly signals a belief in its value.’ (Todd et al, Nature 563, pp245-248 October 2018). To which end I’m proud to say that in recent months I’ve foregone appealing trips to Turku in Finland and Lisbon in Portugal, and I’ve turned down forthcoming opportunities to go to Portugal (again) and the lovely and prestigious Banff Centre for the Performing Arts in Canada, instead delivering talks by video and Q&As by video-conferencing. The team and I at CCS are getting better at doing this to a high standard.

Meanwhile, I’m off to Belfast this weekend by bus and ferry for an ill-advised 96th birthday party – a route that is shockingly ill-served by the UK’s transport network, which says something about how Northern Ireland is perceived in our country. Bon voyage! 

The post Ben’s Strategy Blog: The pain and pleasure of long-distance rail journeys appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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Get involved in  #GreenArts Day : the annual online celebration of our movement for a sustainable Scotland ! #GreenArts Day is taking place on Wednesday 18th  March from 10am, across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.   

In the past #GreenArts day has reached over a million people on Twitter alone. With 2020 set to be a massive year for climate action in Scotland, we want to make this year’s #GreenArts Day the biggest ever and we need your help to do it!

What can you expect from #Green Arts Day?

• Inspiration and community Member organisations of the Green Arts Initiative will be posting about their work on social media, celebrating their achievements and sharing their plans for the future.
• The Launch of the Green Arts Initiative Annual Report This report synthesises our members annual reporting on the actions they’ve taken, and the ambitions they have for their environmental sustainability efforts. We’ll be live publishing the 2019-20 report as part of #GreenArts Day, sharing their wealth of experience and insight.
• Examples of Green Arts projects We will release new detailed case studies about work that has been done by members of the Green Arts Initiative this year, adding up to date projects to our already extensive catalogue of case studies.
• Announcements and News #GreenArts Day is a great moment to announce new initiatives to achieve even more ambition in creating a better, more sustainable Scotland (and world). Tune in to catch announcements from Green Arts Initiative members or others.
• Questions to prompt your own green arts thinking Over the course of the day, we’ll also be posing key questions that the Green Arts community is working on, challenging the cultural sector and those participating in it to develop the ideas which underpin all our efforts towards a sustainable Scottish cultural sector.

How can you get involved?

• Tweet or retweet using the hashtag #GreenArts on Twitter, or post on Instagram or Facebook. Tweet or post:
  • about the role of arts and culture in addressing environmental issues
  • about what you or your organisation has done this year
  • photos or images of performances, projects, your Green Arts Initiative sticker, your Green Team
• Follow Creative Carbon Scotland on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
• Spread the word to your friends, colleagues, and audiences about #GreenArts Day, put on an event or a #GreenArts Day party!

And if you are a Green Arts Initiative member:

• Share with us what you’ve been doing this year. We’re particularly keen to hear about case studies or receive photos.
• Involve the rest of your team. Use #GreenArts Day as an excuse to engage other members of staff in the important work you are doing.
• Let your audiences know that it’s #GreenArts Day. Integrate it into your programming. Hold a talk or discussion.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, plans, or questions you want to share, please get in touch with lewis.coenen-rowe@creativecarbonscotland.

The post #GreenArts Day 2020: Save the Date! appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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